Some modern communications solutions are based on VoIP (Voice-over IP (Internet Protocol)) technology, which is the transmission of calls over a data network based on the IP. The communication is in the form of packet data and thus there is no fixed connection as there would be in the case of switched networks. The communication can be text, voice, graphics or video. In order to simplify IP communication problems, standards have been developed and adopted in the industry. Examples of such standards are H.323 (Packet based communication systems) and SIP (Session Initiation Protocol). These standards are followed when designing new hardware and software. The SIP standard covers the technical requirements to set-up, modify and tear down multimedia sessions over the Internet. A multimedia communication session between two endpoints will be referred to as a call.
Communication solutions, whether they be switch based or packet based, are defined and designed for a specific number of users and call processing capacity, generally defined by the number of ports (telephone terminations), and the amount of processing available on a central processing equipment that provides routing and call processing functionality. Hence, equipment vendors generally develop and market versions of the same product for different customer size and needs. However, a customer needs to upgrade to larger central processing equipment once the number of ports required and/or call-processing requirements exceed the capacity of the central processing equipment.
Current multimedia communication systems use a central processing equipment and simple user terminal sets. These simple user terminal sets are referred to as “stimulus terminals” as they simply send user stimuli such as key presses to the central processing equipment. In large systems, the central processing equipment is generally a very powerful computer controlling a number of functions on circuit boards called line cards, which connect telephone sets to the computer. The central processing equipment receives hook-switch information and key presses known in the art as DTMF (Dual Tone Multi-Fequency) tones from the telephone sets, and provides feedback to the telephone sets for example by sending a dial-tone or a ringing tone to the telephone sets. By interpreting the key presses, the central processing equipment controls the interconnection of the telephone sets based on numbers dialed by the telephone sets.
Call park and call park pickup has been implemented using central call processing equipment. During a call, user at a terminal set provides a user input to park the call. The terminal set in turn instructs the central call processing equipment to park the call. The central equipment parks the call and provides the user with a park ID (IDentification) containing a slot number as a key to allow for the retrieval of the call. The user can then pickup the parked call from any other terminal set within the network by entering the park ID. The other terminal set then instructs the central call processing equipment to retrieve the call and the call is transferred to the other terminal set.
In both call park and call park pickup, it is the central call processing engine that provides the call park and call park pickup functionality. Such a call park and call park pickup system is not well suited for scalability and, as discussed above, when the capacity of the central call processing equipment is exceeded an upgrade is required. In addition, central call processing equipment adds additional costs to the total cost of the communication solution.